2023 UK Results Thread

[detuned]

Thought it would be a good idea to collate results from various competitions. Feel free to chip in with anything you think is missing. I may also use this as the basis for a monthly digest to the newsletter.

I’ll try and stick to a format of top 3 and then judgemental honourable mentions (e.g. getting into the top 100 for the GP rounds)

[detuned]

First up, the recent 2022 USPC: http://wpc.puzzles.com/uspc2022/results.asp?mode=intl

Tom Collyer 182 points
Adam Bissett 162
Maurice Blount 120

A further 7 UK participants on the list, representing a reasonably strong proportion of the overall international contingent.

[detuned]

Next up Round 1 of the 2023 Sudoku GP (preliminary results for now)

31 Tom Collyer 513 points
55 Calum Mailer 444
59 Jack Lawrence 436

No other UK solvers close to the top 100 this time round.

[pinkagape]

Great results gentlemen. Given the size of the field, top 100 is increasingly impressive. I'm delighted with my 151th place so you must be flying! 31st is great, Tom! Hope you can keep it up.

I think it's worth keeping track of the rest of us, even if we're not in the top 100, especially with the ranking giving a good idea of relative ability, so that any big improvements can be spotted and congratulated (e.g. if someone is usually in the 80th percentile but finishes in the top half, that would be great!) If this a bit much to ask, I don't mind trying to see if I can do something.

[detuned]

I guess top 100 has been a rule of thumb when posting results previously - there wasn't that much logic behind it other than it seemed like a reasonable benchmark for solvers to aim at, and it did seem like there were increasingly many UK solvers managing to hit it. Fair's fair, I have only just noticed the total size of the field for this one and it is pretty big! Definitely some surprises reading down - I don't think I've ever seen the likes of Hideaki Jo as far down as the 90s for example.

However, I'm afraid my tracking doesn't go much further than a cursory glance of the results table. For one thing the data format as presented on the web isn't the cleanest thing to try and scrape into something slightly more systematic - but anyone who is interested in doing it more thoroughly than me I would greatly encourage to do so!

[pinkagape]

So I've compared with 2022, and where UK players don't appear on that list, I've had a quick check back to see if they've played before or not.

The strongest performance by a player who certainly looks new is Zoe Ashford who finished 6 puzzles and finished in #351, (ahead of Freddie, this appears to have been a tough round for many).

Calum's performance was especially strong compared to his average from 2022, and it's an excellent result of #55. Further down the field there was one other which stood out as an improvement from 2022, Simon Rose in #483 has made a good start to 2023!

[detuned]

One other thought: I don’t know how frequently the WPF are going to be updating their new ratings (see also the other thread) but that might be an easy way to benchmark a notable performance for a certain individual? I guess there’s still a bit more data work there required than my cursory glance at the results page

[detuned]

I’m going to be much less reliable posting LMI results, but again anyone else is welcome to add them anyhow round one of the annual puzzle Ramayan has happened. I don’t know how to benchmark outside of a top 3, and I don’t know how much bearing to put on the score - please improve on this if you have better ideas!

3 Freddie Hand
37 James McGowan (yes it says New Zealand but we also love James in the UK)
73 Dylan Gibbs

[detuned]

Is it me, or is everyone getting much better at puzzles or maybe I'm just getting worse. In any case, there are some results from round 1 of the GP. Very interesting to see two Chinese solvers at the top of the tree - an 1100+ score seems insane, as does taking >25% off Ken Endo's time. And as well as the usual flood of Japanese solvers to try and beat, there is an increasingly strong showing from the US there too.

Also a good strong UK showing as well

4 Freddie Hand 923.7
21 Neil Zussman 599
55 James McGowan 485

Also in the top 100, and not too far behind James, were Adam Bissett and Matthew White. A little further back just outside the top 100 were Dylan Gibbs and Tom Collyer

[pinkagape]

To do a similar search for strong UK performances that I did in the sudoku, there were a good number of performances in the top 300, and in addition to those that Tom has highlighted, Dylan Gibbs (#116) and Jack Lawrence (#152) both outscored their average from 2022 significantly, and Georgiy Kassabli (#97) continued his excellent start to the year. As far as I can see, this is his first season doing GP. Further down the field, the performance that stands out is Nick Edwards (#387), who more than doubled his 2022 average in this 2023 opener.

[detuned]

Preliminary results of Round 2 of the Sudoku GP:

46 Jack Lawrence 501
96 Tom Collyer 409
97 Matthew White 408

A new name to me, Matt Siegfried, was narrowly behind Tom and Matthew just outside the top 100. A really good result for Jack there too, top 50 and breaking 500 points - well done!

[pinkagape]

As far as I can see, Matt Siegfried is a new name, and that's a great performance. The next best new name I could see was Paul Pope, in #466, though another new player from last round, Tamsin Mayberry, made huge strides and broke into the top 400.

From more established players, Jack's performance is impressive but there are a few others to point out. Howard Wilkinson made a 68% improvement on his 2022 average to make #152, and Simon Rose followed up his good Round 1 performance with a great Round 2 performance, making #267.

[pinkagape]

I'll do some of the deeper analysis in the next day or so, but just to say well done to Freddie and Sam for some blistering times in Puzzle GP Round 2! Clearly very much on form heading into the UK Puzzle Championships!

[detuned]

Ahead of Adam’s more detailed round-up here’s the brief highlights of the (preliminary) puzzle GP round 2 results:

3 Freddie Hand 885.2
11 Sam Cappleman-Lynes 746.7 - though ranking likely to improve when others lose bonus currently applied
30 James McGowan 566

No one else in the top 50; a little further back was Neil Zussman, with Adam Bissett, Tom Collyer and Emma McCaughan also squeezing into the top 100.

[pinkagape]

Alongside Sam's superb 10th place, which is his best position in a GP round, a number of puzzlers got their highest round score. Emma McCaughan's 413 points, Maurice Blount's 388, Art Ed's 381 points, Liane Robinson's 243 points and Julia Hayward's 205 were all personal bests since my records began (2018). Each of Liane, Emma and Julia recorded significant jumps in their recent averages too, so congratulations!

[pinkagape]

Sudoku Grand Prix Round 3 preliminary results are up.

We had two in the top 100, but Howard Wilkinson in #138 is probably the top performance as he improved significantly on his recent average, as did Sam Boden in #198 and Luke Pebody in #218, who also achieved his highest position in a round.